Protect your joy.
In my humble opinion, joy can cure a lot of what ails you. Joy is medicine. Joy energizes your soul. Joy connects you to your humanness. Joy is rebellion against the many systems we live under. Joy creates peace and awe. Joy gives us the courage to keep living. Joy connects us to others, to ourselves. We are often robbed of joy when we feel fear, anxiety, and the weight of all the stresses we face. Which for many of us, happens daily. Good news is joy can actually help change your neurobiology! Accessing joy can increase your feel good neurotransmitters improving mood, connection to others, and contentment, while also, helping to relieve stress. In short, joy is not just a fleeting moment, it can have lasting effects on your health and wellbeing.
Joy is one of the antidotes to the pain of modern life. Joy is pure. It is a pure expression of what it means to be human in this world. Protect it. Share it. There is a freedom in the experience of joy. Expand your joy, invite others to experience it with you. Joy is contagious. So I’ll say it again, protect your joy. Help protect the joy of those who are marginalized. Celebrate black joy, queer joy, trans joy, immigrant joy, our children’s joy, and every joy that exists on this planet. To me, witnessing someone experience joy is nothing short of magic, as good as experiencing joy myself. It is contagious. I know it can be hard to experience joy when we are all going through so much. It must be prioritized. Make sure it’s on the weekly to-do list. The more you practice creating and looking for joy, the more you will find it. And remember, an abundance of joy is always a good thing.
Questions to ponder.
When was the last time you felt joy? What was that experience like?
Where do you find joy? How can you bring more of that into your life?
How can you protect your joy?
